{"id":306230,"date":"2018-06-11T23:10:19","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T21:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/sylvester-and-his-dignity\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:37:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:37:22","slug":"sylvester-and-his-dignity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/sylvester-and-his-dignity\/","title":{"rendered":"Sylvester and his dignity"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw him out of the corner of my eye as I was rushing into the supermarket.<\/strong> He was behind a tree; it was almost as if he wanted to hide from something or someone. I saw him more clearly when I was leaving and he was directly in front of me. I already had two euro in my hand to give to him but I felt uncomfortable at the idea of being the \u201cdonor\u201d who was giving some change to the \u201cbeggar.\u201d We are both human beings, aren\u2019t we, even if life has treated us differently? As I gave him the money, I spontaneously said, \u201cHello. I\u2019m Gino. What is your name?\u201d \u201cSylvester,\u201d he replied with an embarrassed voice. \u201cHave you got a problem?\u201d I asked. There was a moments silence. Later I understood that this was more due to not understanding Italian than to feeling this was a difficult situation. \u201cNo. Everything\u2019s fine,\u201d he said. I wasn\u2019t convinced and so I continued, \u201cLook me in the eye and tell me if you have a problem.\u201d Again he answered, \u201cEverything is fine.\u201d As I was approaching my car, I could hear him making his way towards me; \u201cYes, I have a problem. I want to work.\u201d I shook hands with him as a sign that I had understood. His face and his wounded dignity entered into my heart. We exchanged contact details because we didn\u2019t want to lose touch. That is how Sylvester and I became friends in spite of language and cultural diversity. It was a meeting between two people where each one had his own sense of dignity. From that day onwards, I became increasingly aware that the first thing to do was help him overcome the hurdle of the language barrier<\/strong>. Even if his documents were all in order, it was unrealistic to think he could find a job if he couldn\u2019t express himself in or understand Italian. I didn\u2019t know how to say this because I didn\u2019t speak his language. I remembered that I had a friend from his country and I asked him to be an interpreter. We all met for a beer in the bar near the supermarket and understood more about Sylvester\u2019s situation. Before leaving, I turned to him and said, \u201cRemember Sylvester, nothing is insignificant if it is done with love. You are not here to ask for something but to offer help to whoever needs it \u2013 to carry heavy shopping or find a parking space or trolley. God loves you, me everyone. Let\u2019s ask for this together, as the Gospel says. Maybe a door will open but, in the meantime, this is your job. Do it with your head held high \u2013 without losing your dignity.\u201d The following evening I received a WhatsApp message from him. \u201cGood evening Gino. How are you? I hope you and your family are well. Thank you for helping me. God bless you for taking care of me. I am longing to begin a proper job but in the meantime I will do as you said and hold my head up high. I am waiting to see you.\u201d I had to use google translate to understand him and reply. \u201cDear Sylvester. Thanks for your good wishes. Today I tried to find a free Italian language course. I hope I will have good news for you soon.\u201d After that, I began to experience what we already know – it is very difficult to help someone! To this day, I do not understand why there is so much bureaucracy! However, I didn\u2019t give in because other people also began to support Sylvester. I was no longer alone and neither was he. Tomorrow he will begin Italian lessons. This is the first step towards finding a job and being able to send financial support to his wife and two small children who have stayed in the country where he was born. Maybe, one day, they will be able to join him. Dear Sylvester, I pray that this will happen! Gustavo Clari\u00e1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a good neighbour – it\u2019s easier said than done. However, it should be part of human nature to show understanding towards other people, especially those in difficulty. It\u2019s what creates a relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}